The South African Railways Class 34-000 of 1971 is a diesel-electric locomotive. Between July 1971 and March 1973, the South African Railways placed 125 Class 34-000 General Electric type U26C diesel-electric locomotives in service.South African Railways Index and Diagrams Electric and Diesel Locomotives, 610mm and 1065mm Gauges, Ref LXD 14/1/100/20, 28 January 1975, as amended

Manufacturer

The Class 34-000 type GE U26C diesel-electric locomotive of the South African Railways (SAR) was designed by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

(GE). The first three locomotives were built by GE and imported, numbered in the range from 34-001 to 34-003, while the remainder were built by the South African General Electric-Dorman Long Locomotive Group (SA GE-DL, later Dorbyl) and numbered in the range from 34-004 to 34-125. The 125 locomotives entered service between July 1971 and March 1973. The same U26C locomotive type is also in use on other railways around the world. One of them is the New Zealand Railways, where it is known as their DX class. Other users are Kenya Railways who for some years also leased South African Class 34 U26C locomotives, and

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(ALL) in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Class 34 series

GE and GM-EMD designs

The Class 34 consists of seven series, the GE Classes , , (also known as " ex Iscor") and , and the General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) Classes , and . Both manufacturers also produced locomotives for the South African Classes 33, 35 and 36.

Distinguishing features

As built, the GE Classes , and locomotives were visually indistinguishable from each other. The Class locomotives could be visually distinguished from the other series by the air conditioning units mounted on their cab roofs and initially when it was still a feature unique to them, by their running board mounted handrails. At some stage during the mid-1980s, all Class 34-000, 34-400 and 34-500 locomotives had saddle filters installed across the long hood, mounted just to the rear of the screens behind the cab on the sides. Since then, Class 34-900 locomotives could be distinguished from the older models by the absence of the saddle filter.

Modifications

Fuel capacity

As built, the Class 34-000 has a fuel tank and interlinked bogies, while the Class was delivered new to Iscor with a fuel tank to cope with the lack of en route refuelling points on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line. To facilitate the larger fuel tank, the inter-bogie linkage found on all other models had to be omitted on the Class . To be usable on the iron ore line, Class 34-000 locomotives which ended up working there were modified to a similar fuel capacity. The inter-bogie linkage was removed and the fuel tank was enlarged by changing it from saddle-shaped to rectangular box-shaped. To maintain its lateral balance, a slab of metal was attached to each bogie in place of the removed linkage. In the second picture, the weld lines on the end of the enlarged fuel tank as well as the metal slab at the end of the bogie are visible. Bogie interlinking removed

Running board mounted handrails

Class 34-000 locomotives that were allocated to the Sishen-Saldanha Orex line were often modified by having removable running board-mounted handrails installed. All pre-2000 South African diesel-electric locomotives had their side handrails mounted along the upper edges of their long hoods. The ex Iscor Class 34-500s, however, came equipped with additional removable running board-mounted handrails. Since these handrails are slide-fit into brackets which are welded onto the running board, they are easily removed. Since c. 2009, other mainline diesel-electric locomotive types also emerged from the Koedoespoort Transwerk shops with running board mounted handrails after major overhauls. Shosholoza Meyl’s 34-102 with running board handrails

Electronic control system

Beginning in 2010, some Class 34-000 locomotives were equipped with electronic fuel injection and GE "Bright Star" control systems. On some of the first locomotives which were so modified, evidence of the modification is a raised middle portion of the long hood.

Service

GE Class 34-000s work on most mainlines and some branch lines in the central, western, southern and southeastern parts of the country. Some eventually joined the Class 34-500 on the Sishen–Saldanha Orex line to haul export ore from the open cast iron mines at Sishen near Kathu in the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...

to the harbour at Saldanha in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

, until they gradually began to be replaced by new Class 43-000 locomotives in 2012. On the Orex line, GE Class 34 series diesel-electric locomotives ran consisted to Class 9E or Class 15E electric locomotives to haul the 342-wagon iron ore trains. Each wagon has a 100-ton capacity and the trains are at least in length, powered by mixed consists of Class 9E and Class 15E electric, GE U26C Class 34-000, , 34-500 and 34-900 and from 2012, GE C30ACi Class 43-000 diesel-electric locomotives. In South Africa, mixed electric and diesel-electric consists are unique to the iron ore line.Actom Divisions News, 22 July 2010
Information supplied by Orex train crew members

Works numbers

The Class 34-000 builder's works numbers are listed in the table.

Liveries

With five exceptions, the Class 34-000 were all delivered in the SAR Gulf Red livery with signal red buffer beams, yellow side stripes on the long hood sides and a yellow V on each end. The five exceptions, numbers 34-055 to 34-059, were delivered in blue with a yellow V on the ends and yellow buffer beams for use on the Blue Train between

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

and

Beaufort West Beaufort West (Afrikaans: ''Beaufort-Wes''; Xhosa: ''eBhobhofolo'') is a town in the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is the largest town in the arid Great Karoo region, and is known as the "Capital of the Karoo". It forms part of the ...

. They were all eventually repainted in Spoornet’s orange livery after they were replaced in Blue Train service by seven Class 34-900 locomotives, numbers 34-924 to 34-930.Soul of A Railway, System 7, Western Transvaal, based in Johannesburg, Part 9. South-Eastwards as far as Volksrust (2nd part) by Les Pivnic. Caption 4.
(Accessed on 11 April 2017) In the 1990s many of the Class 34-000 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams. Several later received the Spoornet maroon livery. In the late 1990s many were repainted in the Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers on the long hood sides. After 2008 in the

Transnet Freight Rail Transnet Freight Rail is a South African rail transport company, formerly known as Spoornet. It was part of the South African Railways and Harbours Administration, a state-controlled organisation that employed hundreds of thousands of people ...

(TFR) and

Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) is a South African state-owned enterprise responsible for most passenger rail services in the country. History In 1910, as a consequence of the formation of the Union of South Africa, all railwa ...

(PRASA) era, many were repainted in the TFR red, green and yellow livery and at least four were repainted in the PRASA purple livery.

Illustration

File:SAR Class 34-000 34-108 SAR.JPG, No. 34-108 in SAR Gulf Red and whiskers livery at Bloemfontein, Free State, 14 October 2009 File:SAR Class 34-000 34-058 & 059.jpg, No. 34-058 and 34-059 in SAR Blue Train livery, still without saddle filters, at

Modder River The Modder River is a river in South Africa. It is a tributary of the Riet River that forms part of the border between the Northern Cape and the Free State provinces. The river's banks were the scenes of heavy fighting in the beginning of the ...

, Cape Province on 1 September 1975 File:Class 34-000 34-013.JPG, No. 34-013 in Spoornet maroon livery at Swartkops Loco Depot, Port Elizabeth, 20 April 2013 File:SAR Class 34-000 34-102.JPG, No. 34-102 in Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers at Bloemfontein, Free State, 14 October 2009 File:Class 34-000 34-108.jpg, No. 34-108 in

's Shosholoza Meyl livery at Beaufort West, 10 October 2015 File:Class 34-000 34-084.JPG, Bright Star equipped no. 34-084 in Transnet Freight Rail livery at Swartkops, 20 April 2013

References

External links

{{GE diesels 3350 C-C locomotives Co′Co′ locomotives Co+Co locomotives General Electric locomotives Dorbyl locomotives Cape gauge railway locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1971 1971 in South Africa